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Four of my assembled boxes; “The Lacemakers Guild”, Remaining”, “My Josephine was Delicate” and “Masks Before Midnight” are going to be shown at the 13th annual Women’s Work exhibition, “Little Women”.
The exhibition runs from the 11th to the 22nd of March (open daily 10-4 pm but closed on the 16th and 17th) at The Fairground Craft and Design Centre, Weyhill, Andover, Hampshire, SP11 0QN. Tel: 01264 773438.
How to Build Cathedrals. Cildo Meireles, 1987
A visually spectacular piece by Brazilian installation artist, Cildo Meireles. It was made for an exhibition to commemorate the Jesuit missions to South America between 1610 and 1767. Missionaries sought to eradicate cannibalism in the indigenous population by offering the consumption of Christ’s body in the sacrament of Holy Communion. However using one form of culture to replace and eradicate another can be viewed as a form of cannibalism in itself.
600,000 coins carpeting the floor are joined to a canopy of 2000 bones hanging from the ceiling by a white column of 800 communion wafers. The objects allude to religion, commerce and human loss.
Meireles has explained: “I wanted to construct something that would be a kind of mathematical equation, very simple and direct, connecting three elements: material power, spiritual power, and a kind of unavoidable, historically repeated consequence of this conjunction, which was tragedy. I wanted a sky of bones, a floor of money, and a column of communion wafers to unite these two elements.”
I find this piece appealing both in its visual elegance and in its use of symbolism in its materials. Meireles describes the materials he uses as being, “in the everyday world, close to their origin, yet impregnated with meaning”.
Confetti. Installation view. 2009
Taking advantage of the weather yesterday I went down to the woods and took some installation pics of the “confetti” work outside. Its a bit different from what I have in mind for how I’d install things in a gallery space but was good to try it out in a new way.
Confetti. Detail from installation view. 2009.
Confetti. Detail from installation view. 2009.
What I really enjoyed while doing this was peoples reactions. Everybody who walked past stopped to ask me about what I was doing. There was genuine interest and fascination and I think because of the environment it was in, as opposed to an intimidating gallery, people felt free to ask me about what the words were, what they meant, and why I was doing it. One group of walkers watched me putting things up for a while and when I told them I would be taking it down after I had photographed it, said how pleased they were to have come along at that moment and been able to see it.
Confetti. Detail from installation view. 2009.
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